Pals,

I got married last year but havent changed my tax class yet. My wife is in India. is it possible to change my tax class? if yes, how do i do it? When i went to Stadtverwaltung, they said that i need to get my Marriage certificate translated and attested by Indian authorities in Germany. is that correct?

Thanks for your time.

To change the tax class, your wife should be in registered in germany. You can show them your marriage certificate submitted to the german embassy which i guess was translated into german and attested by some authority.

My understanding is following.
Even if you do not change the tax class, you should be able to claim the difference of amount (between class 1 and 3) while you file the tax returns during the end of the year.

yes it is true. But you cannot do it for the year 2008. But if your wife gets registered in germany before Dec 31 2009, you can do that for Tax returns for the year 2009.

1) Your marriage certificate should be translated by the translators who are registered with court. They are called as
"anerkannter Übersetzer des Oberlandesgerichtes"

For a list of such translators in NRW you can follow the link
http://www.dolmetscher-uebersetzer.nrw.de/

2) With this translated certificate you can change your marital status to married(even before your wife arrives in germany).

But to change the Tax class to III your wife should arrive and get registered here.

Thanks a lot friends.